Make Conyers Hold Hearings
Rep. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was a strong advocate of impeachment until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table. He still said that he was for impeachment, but that we, the people, had to make him do it. On March 19, 2008, Conyers said that he was afraid that impeachment would hurt Barack Obama's chances in the Presidential race against John McCain. Since then, Code Pink has met with Conyers, and told him that having impeachment hearings would actually hurt McCain. It would give McCain the choice either to support Bush, thus losing standing with the public, or oppose Bush, thus giving Republican Senators political cover to vote for conviction in a Senate impeachment trial. Another way to convince Conyers that impeachment won't hurt Obama is to volunteer with your local Democratic campaign organization, join our new Grassroots campaign against the Republican Attack Machine, and write Conyers a letter telling him that you are doing it so that he can get on with impeachment hearings. Tell Conyers in the letter how the crimes of Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Michael Mukasey and other Administration officials have affected your life. * Have you lost a family member or friend in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in 9/11, or seen them come back crippled in body or mind and unable to get treatment from the VA? Worse yet, do you know anybody who has been harmed by an Iraq veteran having a combat flashback? * Has the administration lied about you or someone you know, and harmed them as a result? * If you are in the military, do torture of prisoners, denial of Habeas Corpus, and other violations of the Geneva Conventions make you feel more or less safe? * Have you lost the ability to speak freely in public due to administrative actions or threats? * Are you losing money or security in this recession, or did you get in trouble with an unregulated and fraudulent subprime mortgage? * Has the Bush Administration's failure to prevent 9/11, and the resulting climate of fear, interfered with your ability to travel by air or visit other countries? Did 9/11 hurt you or anyone you know directly? * Do you work with an NGO or government agency that has to deal with Iraqi and Afghan refugees, or with other needy people who are losing assistance because money now goes to Iraq and Afghanistan instead of to them? * Have you been unable to attend a lecture or concert because the speaker or performer couldn't get a visa? * How do the deficits and the resulting decline of the dollar affect you? It is supposed to help corporations sell more overseas, but it makes everything imported more expensive for corporations, consumers, government, and in fact everybody. * Do you feel economically better off now that China controls so much of the value of the dollar? * Are you or someone you know sick because the Administration has gutted environmental protections, or you took a fast-tracked medicine that had too little testing? Are you unable to eat local fish, drink local water, or breathe local air safely? * Do you pay too much for medicines because the Administration demanded that Medicare not be allowed to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers? * Does global warming affect you by creating more intense rain, hurricanes, floods, and droughts? * Does George W. Bush make you ashamed to be an American? * Do Administration mismanagement, excessive secrecy, and outright criminality impinge on you or your friends, family, or acquaintances? * Have you been affected in some other way? Please add to this list. Also send copies of your letters to Clinton and Obama headquarters, to your own Senator and Representative, and to your local newspaper, and to radio and television stations. Call in to talk shows. Blog. Speak up and take back our Republic. It isn't only our vote that counts. We need many thousands of such letters from all over the country. Category:Actions Category:Congress